The Invisible War - Spiritual Warfare 401: How to Gain Deliverance from Demonic Influence, Part 2

What would you do if you strongly suspected someone was under significant demonic influence? Is exorcism something just for movies?

Does it take a professional? What do you do when there's genuine evidence of demonic influence in the life of someone you love? That's what we'll cover today. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this international discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. Well, in this program, Chip wraps up our series, The Invisible War. As we've studied Ephesians chapter six, we've learned a lot about spiritual warfare, like what it is, how to prepare for it, and how to fight well and win. But today, Chip tackles the complex question of, what if someone you love is being oppressed by a demon?

How do you respond? Well, for that answer and more, let's join Chip for the second half of his message, How to Gain Deliverance from Demonic Influence. There's a supernatural world and there's supernatural mindset.

And so just what I want you to know is that this is very common. The New Testament writers provide clear direction. If this wasn't a valid ministry, we've got James chapter four, right? Submit therefore to God, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts.

You double-minded. There's a very clear process of submission to God, resistance of the enemy, and very specific steps you take with your actions, with your heart. And then he says you humble yourself and then God will exalt you in due time.

And then a contemporary balance ministry deliveries do exist. Write down the name Mark Bubek. He's got a book called Overcoming the Adversary. Dr. Michael Pocock of Dallas Seminary. He's the head of the missions department. He's been all around the world, firsthand with all of this.

And then Neil Anderson. There's reputable people who are balanced and do deliverance ministry. Now here's why some of us are very suspect of this, is here's some of the problems.

Extremism and fanaticism tend to negatively color this ministry. I mean, you don't have to be flipping the channels and have some person on TV go, we're gonna stomp out the devil. Come on, join me right now. We're stomping out the devil. Okay, everybody.

Or the guy that I told you about, they brought him up. He was demonized and they're kicking him. I mean, there's kooky, kooky, wacky weird stuff when it comes to, and there's people that use it for manipulation. But let me just give you a little overview of some of the problems.

And let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Another one of the problems is the confusion concerning demon possession, which is about internal control versus oppression of believers. It clouds the ministry and its validity. So in other words, believers are taught if Jesus lives in me, I cannot be demon-possessed. So all this deliverance ministry, it's completely unimportant.

Michael Pocock in his writings has a continuum, and he talks about demonic influence can be over here, all the way over here, but he talks about it begins with oppression, then it can move to harassment, then to obsession, then to compulsion, and then the appearance of possession, just total control of at least unbelievers. Fear and ignorance have caused many people to simply ignore. This can't be. This is like, I've had people say, one person started reading the book and was thinking about doing the series, and they got like into two chapters, and some weird stuff happened. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. It's too spooky.

Well, I didn't want to say it because it wasn't appropriate at the time. So you just want to be blind and live in fear. So if the victory's already done, and I mean, there's just people like, you know what, I don't want crazy stuff happening in my life.

Translation, I want my life and my comfort on my terms. I don't want to do anything that sort of rocks the boat of my life instead of being aware and becoming an ambassador and a follower and a disciple that can make more of a difference. Those who engage in this ministry are often tempted by pride, where they become singularly focused, they fall into theological error, and they start to go beyond scripture. And then I think one of the other problems is assigning blame of all one's problems to demonic influence versus assuming personal responsibility and using biblical common sense that calls ministries into question.

It's sort of, the devil made me do it. Now, here's the deal. I told you a little early about, you know, I had some notes that didn't come out quite right, and my first thought was, man, the enemy's messing things up. My next thought was, and you didn't review the notes.

And guess what? I'm thinking both are true. I'm thinking, you know, human error and trying to mess people up and get them frustrated? Of course.

So here's what you should be getting. This is a valid ministry from Jesus all the way through the early lives of the church. You should know there's some very clear problems that make many people suspect of it for very good reasons. Third, here's some causes of demonic influence. In other words, if you start with oppression, harassment, obsession, compulsion, in other words, these are some of the ways that people knowingly or unknowingly get involved in demonic influence. One is yielding to sin. John 8 34 says is that when you commit a sin, you become a slave to it.

If you ever work in, you know, like downtown, you know, city team, rehab type places, inner city, homeless people, drug addictions, sex addictions. There is an amazing connection between demonic influence and people that have addictions. Am I saying that every addiction is a demonic influence?

No. What I'm saying is once people surrender themselves and find themselves in addictions and perversion, the enemy, the strongholds, they become slaves because the MO is accomplished. What is Satan's goal?

To kill, to steal, and destroy. When you find people who make decisions and we can kill ourselves with food, we can kill ourselves with media, right? It's not just drugs and, you know, alcoholics and cocaine addicts. See, as long as we can keep thinking like that, these are issues for those people out there.

What if we have some strongholds? What if workaholism? I couldn't think of anybody that's ever had that problem. Or people pleasing or codependency. What if there's something inside of you that because of your family of origin, you got to please people all the time so you get overextended and it's ruining your health and it's ruining relationships and no matter how hard you try, could it be that you're believing a lie? And could it be when you try to break out of that, you get opposition and maybe even harassment?

And maybe there's a reason why whatever program you went through didn't work because it was based solely on willpower or psychology. So I'm just saying that when you yield to sin, second, spiritual rebellion. I mean, when, and this is why in parenting, I'm, you know, kids make mistakes and they can fail and they have good attitudes and bad attitudes, but when they actively, defiantly rebel as a parent, you need to understand, boy, that is not something you ever allow.

And so, and if you don't start when they're small, boy, when they get old, there's not much you can do. Rebellion, according to scripture, is like the sin of divination. And when we rebel against God, when you know, when God speaks to you, can I mess with you just for a minute?

Because we have an epidemic in the church. Can I give you maybe the top two or three sins that really good Christian people live with and we gloss over and I think hinders our spiritual life dramatically? Number one is unforgiveness.

We just, I mean, I'll never talk to her again. I forgive them, but I'm being passive aggressive in what comes out of my mouth. I talk about them. I have anger fantasies in my mind.

They don't deserve it. Second one is our money. And I'm not talking about some legalistic, are you tithing or not?

That is a beginning point. If God does not have my money, I don't care how you feel, how high your hands go up, how deep emotions and how much you even read the Bible. According to Jesus, if he does not have your money, he does not have your heart. If he does not have your heart, he is not your Lord.

If he is not your Lord, you are not having the kind of life he wants for you and he's not using you. But the key behind why you don't give him your money, are you ready, is you don't trust him and you don't trust him because you don't think he's good and you don't think he's powerful and you don't think he's sovereign and that's a very big insult to God. And the reason he wants you to give the first portion and then learn to become a proportional giver is one, he wants to change the world. There's all these ministries and all these opportunities that are underfunded and he wants to change your heart.

And if you can't trust him with the minimum of the first 10% of your income, how in the world are you trusting him for your eternal life, for changing your children, for breaking strongholds? And what I just know, it's just epidemic. The third area where we seem to just give ourselves a past is in the area of sexual purity. We've just come to where, in our culture today, believers sleep together, we watch things. I mean if you could, if I could put you in a little time machine and because the problem is it happens so gradually, so gradually, so gradually, if I could put you in a time machine that would just go back 30 years and then I could sit you down with the world and the culture and what came on the tube and then just out of the blue play just what's normal primetime programming now.

You would go, I can't believe this. This is terror, this is an outrage. But over time, we laugh. Over 90% of all sexual activity in primetime TV is by people that aren't married. And you don't understand, it's not just pornography, it's lies about relationships that become norms. There was a day when an unbiblical divorce was seen in the church as not only wrong, but we need to address that. That's not true anymore. There was a day in the church where homosexuality and illicit heterosexual was a sin. And now churches are changing, some Christian institutions and universities are changing, and there's just this drift. The scripture is really clear. And it's not shame on you, bad, bad, bad.

This breaks your father's heart. Every command in scripture is for your good. And all knowing, all wise, I mean some of you like cars or some of you are engineers. What do you know? Whoever designed the car gives you a manual so it runs great. And if it says don't put diesel fuel in a gas car or don't put gas in a diesel car, it's not like, boy, what a prohibition. I can't believe it. Don't you tell me what to put in my car.

Well, just keep putting diesel in it, babe. What happens? And yet, we have a nephew or we have someone we care about. What happens is your relationships and fear of being rejected or being viewed as legalistic. We've gone through this last 20 years of any level of discipline, of spirituality, of purity.

Oh, I don't want to be legalistic. It's grace. Read Titus 2. It is the grace of God that teaches us to say no to all ungodliness and worldliness and impurity and to live righteous lives. Grace produces purity and winsomeness and love.

Here's what you've got to get. None of you. And most Christians would never think, well, there can't be any demonic influence in my life. Well, if there's a stronghold in those areas or others, yes, there is presently today. And if somehow you've rationalized in your mind that you can love Jesus and be sexually impure, you can love Jesus and he doesn't have your money, you can love Jesus and not forgive people, you are deluded, you are deceived, and you're on a path of destruction. And you're reproducing it with the Christians around you and with your children and your grandchildren. Other ways that people kind of passively get involved is participation in the occult. I think I'll check my horoscope or we're on vacation, palm readers. Oh, that'd be funny. Why don't we go get that checked out?

That stuff's real. Attempting to contact the dead. Unresolved anger and bitterness. We've addressed that from Ephesians 4, 26, 27. And then association with those in satanic activity. I will never forget, we had a witch across the street from our church and he actually put an actual horse's head on a stake and cast spells. And I remember coming to church one Sunday night and there were about 20 or 30 people walking in.

They were all dressed in black and they had their faces painted in white. And they were this cult group and satanic worshipers and it was weird. And they came to church. So our worship pastor had the gift of evangelism and he wanted to really share Christ with this witch. So he went over there unwisely by himself and he says, I went in there and walked into this room. All the drapes and everything, it was dark and there were some candles and it was evil. And he goes, I started sharing Christ and then it was just like, I've got to get out of here.

And he told me, I'm never going to go back there again. But my point is, every year Campus Crusade would come and they would get jobs and then they would do summer missions. And then they were such a blessing because they would help in children's ministry and they do it in different churches. And we got about 30 to 40 of them every year. And every year I knew, two weeks in, they'd come up afterwards. Hey pastor, yeah, do you realize there's people that know your name and they pray against you?

Yep. Yeah, we were down and we were sharing Christ on the beach and they were talking about offering animals to sacrifice to Satan and where I lived you can go on bulletin boards. Witches will meet at seven o'clock.

Warlocks will meet, learn how to cast spells. This is America, people. The world has changed. And I know some of you, what happens is the more godly and more holy and the older you get, you know what you do?

You get less and less connected to what's going on in the world. If you, a casual glance at movies, at games, that kids that are built into Netflix, that are just whole, I mean there's whole shows that are just dark and different beings coming from different places, you're living in a world that now is very supernaturally and it's a dark and your kids are growing up and your grandkids are growing up in a world where this is the norm. So yes, we need to pray, we need to model, we need to be wise and here's some New Testament evidences of demonic influence and I'm going to go through these real quickly and I'm going to ask you as I go through these, could you use some biblical common sense? Don't think either or or always.

Think yes, this is one thing that happens. For example, the first one is an evidence of demonic influence, a severe sickness, an untreatable, unconventional something. I mean you've been to the Mayo Clinic, you've had every doctor, you've done this, you've done that, you always start with is it physical, is it psychological, is it spiritual and there are certain things at certain times we should at least ask, could it be that there's some demonic influence? And all I can tell you is all the medicine of the work may or may not work and just even in my own little world I've had opportunities where people have had situations and we've prayed for them and God supernaturally heals them. Now I don't understand all that and is all sickness in any way related?

Absolutely not. It's a fallen world, there's bacteria, right? Second is divination. People messing around with these things open themselves up to demonic influence. Sometimes in acts there, the ability to tell the future. I mean it apparently was legit until Paul cast the demon out of that girl.

The evidence of unusual physical strength, you know the demoniac and no one could hold him down. I had a few scary experiences, I'm not all that sad about not ministering in Santa Cruz anymore. I remember a guy coming down the middle of the aisle, eyes blazing, and then you know a couple guys got him, took about four guys to get this guy and he was coming straight for me and it's like, thank you Lord. Is it unusual? Of course it's unusual but it is an evidence, a split personality.

We had a wild situation. Now is there psychological issues? Are there multiple personalities?

Et cetera, et cetera. We had a situation of a woman literally that she was this person and we finally got leaders together. I know her and this is who she is and this is what she calls herself and this is the kind of person and over here it would be like the direct opposite and it wasn't bipolar and finally her husband was this godly guy and people would come and say, oh no that couldn't be her and she could turn it off and turn it on and then we got her with these people and these people and her husband and we did some research and she had dabbled early and been involved in the occult and she wasn't aware of even when it was happening.

We got around her, we prayed and we got one lady back and got rid of another one. Resistance to spiritual help. Sometimes there's demonic influence, I don't want your help. Other voices, this is only in my case very, very few times and very, and this is where you're tempted to be afraid rather than, okay, alright. Obviously there's a presence here and you're talking to it, you dress it directly and you hear this weird guttural out of a teenage girl and you're thinking, okay. And there's times where it's not two or three little prayers and you're there for a couple hours and there's a team praying and they're occult powers.

We saw very, we had visual manifestations in our house, all the kind of things you would think and we got to where it was like, okay, there's a real enemy, he does so many things, you don't have to be afraid but this is how you can recognize it. The cure, and this is so, so, so important, the cure is right back to the core of what Jesus has done. Victory is through the cross of Christ, Colossians 2, 14 and 15. Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us, he, Jesus, has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross when he disarmed the demonic realm, the rulers and the authorities and he made a public display of them having triumphed over them through him, Christ. Victory is in the name of Jesus, it was in the name of Jesus that they cast out these demons. It was the power of the name of Jesus in Acts 5. It's victory in the power of the Holy Spirit. He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. And now in our sort of final portion here, I need you to lean back and what I want to do and I'll go rather quickly but I just want to give you an outline beginning if there is a unbeliever who you suspect that there's demonic influence and A, never go about doing this alone, B, make sure that there's real prayer that precedes things, that you get the best and wisest help. Depending on the severity, I want to say two things, you may need someone that has a pastor or some people that have really are focused in this area but I say that but I also want you to know a casual reading of the New Testament and at least the first 400 years of the church would say these verses are in here for all of us regular people. James 4, 7 to 10 isn't like oh superstar people with spiritual warfare that's for you. No, it's for us. I mean the officer was 4 foot 11.

My son is 10 years old. The Bible is the sword of the Spirit. It's the power of God. What I'm wanting you to know though is you don't go into this half-baked. I mean when I read passages like Michael didn't even mock Satan, he respected his authority and power and said the Lord rebuke you, you just, this is not something to mess around with, okay?

With that said, it's not something to be afraid of and it's weird and like oh forget it and so let me walk through, here we go. Specific steps for deliverance from demonic influence. Number one for an unbeliever, it's to accept Christ.

It's to understand you don't have the power. In John chapter 1 verse 12. But as many as receive him, to them he gives the right, literally the word is authority to become the children of God.

As many as believe on his name. Second is for believer is to confess your sin. There's some demonic influence and by the way, we're talking, it doesn't mean everything's weird.

There's oppression or maybe it's harassment. Maybe it's not so overblown and you have prayed and maybe you even said something like I never saw it like this until now because isn't this what the scripture does? It opens our eyes and you say Lord, I have been deceived. My money does not reflect your lordship and I'm telling you I'm sorry. I thank you that you forgive me and this is my step of faith that my next check is going to look like this and this is the first portion because I trust you.

It's all of its yours, not 10%, 12%, 30%, it's all yours but you've commanded me to declare that I trust you. It's no different than the manna. They went out and got the manna just to know he'll provide and there's a reason why you had to pick up two one day and none another day. The thing wasn't about bread or manna and it's not about money.

It's about this. Or you may say, since we always tend to pick on men, you know Lord, I think I'm addicted to romance novels. I think I have some deep resentment toward my husband. I think we don't have the romance and the marriage that I would want and I vicariously live and when I have free time, my mind is in romance novels and an occasional hallmark I'm good with.

But, you understand what I'm saying? What if the need to work on the marriage, the need to say this really hurts and the need to address some things gets substituted for that and what if it seems so benign and it's a stronghold and God wants you to have a great marriage and he wants what you're reading about in books to be a part and I know you're going to say, but my husband, yeah, here's what you got. You can't change him but you can do what God wants you to do. And when one person in any relationship takes a step of faith, chain reactions.

I'm not guaranteeing that everyone's going to change but God will do in you and through you and for you what he wasn't doing before. And so you confess. And by the way, I think if you're going this way to be light and salt and do what God wants you to do, I think oppression and harassment, I think you can expect those things. Third is renounce the works of the devil. If you found yourself, you know, I was just goofing around and it was a palm reading deal, renounce it. 2 Corinthians 4.2. If you have any occult objects, you know, you destroy them.

It's an heirloom. Well, you don't want that kind of air. You know, these are, I don't know where this would be, but break friendships with people in the occult. We always have this tension and this struggle and you need to do it lovingly, kindly, and winsomely. But there's some relationships that the value of the relationship, and we quote, so don't want to hurt people's feelings, you can do it in a way that you're involved in this. I know that's very important to you. That isn't something I can be involved in, okay? I don't want to hear, you know, about your readings and what you're doing and this and that.

I need to make a break with that. Rest in Christ's deliverance. You know, Colossians 1, 13. Colossians 2, 14 and 15. Memorize a couple of these verses to remind yourself they've been disarmed.

You don't have to be afraid. They've been conquered. Meditate and apply on God's Word.

Have we not talked about that a bit? And then engage in corporate prayer. And then if necessary, I almost hate to say this word, but exorcism in the name of Christ.

I've given you an outline here. It's by a spiritually qualified counselor. You know, Galatians 5 is real careful about, you know, when you're going to go address something like this, make sure you're in good standing, talking with God, who manifests humility, who wears their spiritual armor, who knows the Word of God, and is supported by prayers of believers. This is a very specific situation and there are times where you really do need an expert. And sometimes when I explain this, I've had many, many calls from people who say, would you come and we have this situation or will you come and teach this because this is what's going on?

And by and large, my answer is always no. I mean, this, I'm, you know, I kind of think I told you before, I feel like if instead of a pastor, I'm a doctor, I'm a general practitioner. I'm not an oncologist. I'm not a baby doctor. I'm not a surgeon.

I'm not a cardiologist. There are experts in this and I will tell you, when I read the books of the Neil Andersons or Po Cox, I mean, they are, I'm like, I'm like, hey guys, all of us regular people, we need to learn and get our game up. And then there's stuff and expertise and wisdom that I'm going to handle whatever comes my way. But this is not an area of expertise. This is an area of I've had a lot more experience than I asked for.

So I know these things are true. But there are certain things and certain times where you need an expert. But here's what I would say.

I just want to repeat. I think most of the time until it gets into some bizarre, bizarre things that you're thinking, this is way over my pay grade. But the same is true at least for me in counseling. I think most all of counseling can be done with believers with believers helping one another. But there's some counseling that there's some issues that happen in people's lives.

Man, I refer, I want a godly, wise, super smart Christian counselor who knows way more than me and has way more experience. But I also don't want to say every time there's some demonic type activity that I outsource it. One of the things that happens, it happened, and that's why I told you the story about my 10-year-old boy. I think I learned more from that than he did.

I mean, his attitude, I still remember. I heard it and it's like it used to happen. And we always kept the bathroom light on when your kids are small. And so I heard what happened. And I'm the dad. I'm going to go help him. And I could see because of the bathroom light, he was there. And he undoes his covers.

Does this. Lord, I'm really tired and I want to get back to sleep. Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world. Even those who believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they overcame him, Satan, in the blood of the land. And the word of their testimony. And they did not love their life, even unto death. Now, evil spirits, in Jesus' name and by his authority, you have to leave right now. So leave and don't come back. And he went like this.

The covers went to sleep. And I thought, boy, he really needs my help. And the next morning, I just wondered, I think that's the childlike faith. I told him those verses are true. He's 10 years old. He's not sophisticated to know better.

Like some of us who think, oh, maybe, oh, I don't know. And at breakfast the next day, how'd you sleep? Okay, dad. Yeah, yeah, pretty good. So, you know, I'm fishing. Well, did anything happen? Yeah, I had one of the satanic nightmares. Yeah, we have a lot of those in here, don't we? Yeah. I said, well, you didn't come and get me.

He said, dad, I'm so sick and tired of this I thought I'd just do it myself. Lord, we are in tremendous, tremendous need. But you are the victor.

You are the king. Your spirit lives in us. And we need each other. God, give us the grace not to be embarrassed but to just accept our weakness and our need and say, will you help me? And would we be bold to ask others to help us?

Would you work in and then work through these sons and daughters of yours? Chip will be right back with his application for this message, How to Gain Deliverance from Demonic Influence from his series, The Invisible War, what every believer needs to know about Satan, demons, and spiritual warfare. Right now, there's a spiritual battle happening all around us. We can't see it, but it's an epic struggle for our hearts and minds. So what are we as believers supposed to do? Through this eight-part study, Chip's been in Ephesians chapter six explaining how we're to think about, prepare for, and respond to spiritual warfare. Our prayer is that through this teaching, you've learned not to be afraid and how to fight well. Let me encourage you to go back and revisit any part of this series by going to livingontheedge.org.

That's livingontheedge.org. Will Chip join me in studio now to share a brief word before we go on? Thanks so much, Dave. Hey, I want to take just a minute to ask you something really important. If you've been impacted by this ministry, would you please pray about partnering with Living on the Edge in a new way right now? Nearly everything we do is dependent on contributions from partners like you.

Our ability to reach people through radio, online, or our app, sharing and developing small group resources, providing broadcasts that are international in Asia and the Middle East and literally dark places around the globe. Please pray how you might be able to come alongside and be a partner to Living on the Edge to help us reach people with the truth of God's Word. Thank you in advance for whatever God leads you to do.

Thanks, Chip. As you've heard, God has called this ministry to help Christians live like Christians both here in the U.S. and internationally. So if you'd like to help us fulfill that mission, we'd love to have you join the team by becoming a monthly partner. Set up a recurring donation at livingontheedge.org or via the Chip Ingram app. Or you can now text donate to 74141.

That's the word donate to 74141. And thanks in advance for doing whatever God leads you to do. Well, with this final application for this series, here's Chip. We have come to the end of our study on spiritual warfare, and this is the most content-filled series I've ever done in my life.

If you have not caught all of the broadcast, you can go on the web and you can get all the notes, every note, every point, every verse I have for you. Second, I highly encourage you, make this a study for your small group. I think you're going to love it. I think it's going to be helpful. And I think it's going to be that balanced approach where we walk right through a passage, Ephesians chapter 6, and do good exposition, but at the same time, practical with regard to how Satan and demons actually work. This series is something I think could be a great resource for you, your small group, and your church. I pray you'll order it, you'll practice it, and you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Thanks, Chip. To learn more about the Invisible War small group, go to livingonttheedge.org. Join Chip in this vital study and uncover the biblical weapons and armor we've been given to withstand Satan's attacks and stand victorious over him. Place your order for the Invisible War small group by visiting livingonttheedge.org. App listeners tap special offers. Well, until next time, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.